Environmental racism includes exclusion from ecology movement leadership

Evidence

A major problem that too often goes unacknowledged by white communities, is the disproportionate location of poor families and families of color in proximity to a toxic environment. Degraded soil, air, and water and the disposal of hazardous waste are all problems that dominated groups must struggle with at much higher rates than those in the dominant culture. In the early 1980s African American civil rights activist Reverend Benjamin Chavis brought attention to racial discrimination in environmental policymaking, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the lifethreatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the ecology movement. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1232

Categorization

• DEFINE: Chavis’s framing widens ‘environmental racism’ past siting to include regulatory enforcement and movement leadership — a precise definition worth teaching verbatim.
• XREF: connects to: Both mainstream environmentalism and civil rights ignored poor communities of color — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 112; Indigenous environmental organizers rejected white-hierarchy governance models outright — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 623; Grassroots environmentalism grew through local groups led by women and minorities — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 549 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Environmental racism comprises siting, enforcement, and exclusion of people of color from decisions #expands (0.92) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 190